Window to the Soul
by idiot-thinks-he-can-write
Summary: After years of friendship, Toph has fallen madly in love with her best friend. Now, living in a near-future New York ridden with crime, poverty, and protest, will her love and the love among others go unfulfilled?


He strummed one string, resounding with a single note. The youth then began to compose in his head a tune and played it. Then he stopped when he realized he was just replaying Bohemian Rhapsody he stopped, put the guitar down, and stood up. The young man was moderate height, clad in dark clothing and a bald head of nonconformity. He was a student, and the box-cluttered room he was in was his dorm room.  
In walked a girl his age...or rather, she was a girl that looked more like a guy. Her messy black hair was covering her bleached green eyes. She wore a Panic at the Disco! T-shirt and black jeans with moldy tennis shoes. She closed the door behind herself and walked towards the other youth as she smiled a broad devilish smile.  
"Hey," she said, "Why haven't you started unpacking yet, Aang?"

Aang looked up at her smiling face, "Sorry Toph, I had a moment of inspiration…"  
Toph sighed, "You played what you heard on the radio again, didn't you?"  
"No," he said, turning the knob of his radio down, "Not at all."  
The girl sighed again and said, "Aang, we're in college now! You might as well just get your art degree and move on to just playing in restaurants or something…"  
"Yeah…no," Aang replied, pulling his guitar back on, "Someday you'll see, I'll get a hit someday…"  
"You've only made ten songs in your whole life, Aang!" Toph replied angrily, "You don't have a band, you don't have any material, you're not going to do anything! Besides, it's all rap and hip-hop these days…"  
"And that, my dearest friend, is where you are wrong," he replied in an almost singsong voice, "It's 2011, a new age is dawning. Congress gave us a draft, taxes, and a nuclear disaster on the southern border. And President Colbert has his hands tied. So who's going to step in to stop this?"  
Toph sighed, "But how does that have anything to do with us? We're in college, we're free from the draft."  
Aang smiled, "Doesn't mean everyone is. Everyday thousands of people are sent to fight in Mexico, only to die for a war they don't support. So what do their friends do? They rebel!"  
Toph sighed, "Have fun with that…"

The young man looked at her and smiled. Toph and Aang had been best friends since 1st grade. For years Toph had always been much shorter than Aang, until junior year when she grew to be about 4 inches taller than him. Toph had been blind since birth, but it wasn't until 7th grade when she got surgery and glasses. Without her glasses she can see things faintly as mostly colors and shapes, but thanks to her astounding senses from not seeing her whole life, she could find a person she had known for a day in a crowded room with ease. She played the drums like a beast, yet her second greatest passion was in poetry, unusual for someone who liked loud and blaring beats like she did.  
Aang had shaved his head four months ago as a sign of nonconformity. He had been a songwriter since 9th grade, but only 2 of his songs had ever been sung. In sophomore year he started a band with himself on guitar, Toph on drums, his friend Mai on bass, and another girl named On Ji singing.  
"And this does involve you, Toph," Aang said in all seriousness, "Remember?"  
"Look, Aang," she said, "I know it's hard, but we have to get over it. We couldn't stop On Ji from being drafted."  
"But we could've stopped her from going," Aang replied, his head bowed low.  
"How, Aang? There was no other way. Just move on with it."  
"How…" he said, his head dropping lower with every syllable, "I…loved…her."  
"It's ok, Aang. I miss her too," Toph said, struggling not to yell, "But you can't go on with this. People already think you shaved your head because of her…"  
"You don't know what it's like!" Aang yelled fiercely, tears streaming from his eyes, "We loved each other and she was taken away forever! You don't understand, no one understands, they never do!"  
"Aang, please," she pleaded, hating to see a usually carefree person so stressed, "I do understand."  
"No, you DON'T!" he yelled, "Now GET OUT!"  
"This is my room too, Aang. Remember?" A mistake had been made in the computers that randomly assigned dorms; somehow Toph was mistaken as a boy and stuck bunking with Aang.  
"Whatever…" Aang replied, "Just get the last boxes before some other freshman steals 'em."  
Toph nodded, walked out, and shut the door. The flowing melody of Hey Jude flowed through the cracks in the dorm walls. She leaned her back against the door and slid down slowly, crying.  
_Why'd I have to fall in love with my best friend_, she asked herself.


End file.
